


Motherhood for the Evil Genius: A Beginner's Guide

by ClementRage



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-06-30 10:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15749841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClementRage/pseuds/ClementRage
Summary: Snippets from a Banora ChildhoodOriginally intended as a gift for the 2018 Fanworks Exchange, but I missed the deadline. Then the story ran away from me anyway.





	1. Ch1

**Author's Note:**

> As noted in my summary, this was originally intended as a gift but kind of escaped my clutches.
> 
> I have never been at, near, or otherwise involved in a childbirth, so I expect this to be highly inaccurate. Apologies in advance.
> 
> Also, this fic is not Canon Compliant in several respects: Canonically, Sephiroth is younger than Genesis and Angeal, Angeal's (step)father is 'of weak constitution', among other things. 
> 
> This fic is also a sequel to a fic that doesn't actually exist, so hopefully it doesn't get too confusing.

“Sephiroth is born, but they won’t let me near him. Contaminate the sample, he says.”

Lucrecia Crescent did not look happy. Now that she was no longer pregnant, she was taking full advantage of being able to drink again, starting her fourth glass since the beginning of the videocall.

Gillian, going on eight months, could relate. Her baby chose that exact moment to kick her in the gut. “Ow!” She shook her fist at her stomach. “You’re going to pay for that when you get out here!”

Lucrecia was watching wistfully. Gillian returned her attention to the screen. “And there’s nothing you can do?”

“You know how Hojo is about his science. My access is revoked, I can still get into my own labs, but Sephiroth is way out of my reach. I have one bodyguard I trust to keep me safe, but not even he can break in without drawing down on us.”

“You’ve talked to Scarlet?”

“She’s no influence on the Science Dept, I knew that.” Lucrecia sighed and slumped down against the wall. “It looked so good on paper, you know? A child that could rediscover the secrets of the Cetra, help to save the world from itself. And then you see the kid, and everything changes. Who knows what they’re doing to him in there. I don’t think they’d keep me out if it was above board.”

“Birth went okay?”

“Physically I’m fine. Mild hallucinations, probably stress. I just want to see my fucking baby, through glass if I have to. But it seems that’s out of the question, somehow. Fuck.”

“ Stay strong, Lu. You’ll think of something. Take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try.”

Gillian ended the call, gears turning in her brain. No one was going to take her child away from her.

* * *

 

 When labour started, Gillian took care not to let anyone know, and put in a full day’s work before going home, trying not to limp or stagger. When she was this heavily pregnant, work was light, happily enough.

Her husband, who she called Jason even though it wasn’t his name (long story) was quickly at her side when she got back. One of the advantages of marrying a 6’3’’ former Mythril miner was that there was always someone available to carry you places when necessary. Apparently even pregnant Gillian was lighter than Mythril ore, so he was willing and able to carry her around more or less indefinitely without complaint, visible effort, or even surprise. The only downside was the occasional whack from the top of a doorframe.

This time, he set her down on the couch.

“Painkillers?” he asked first, laying out her very extensive collection.

Gillian gave a twisted smile. “Not this time.”

“What? You don’t have to-”

“I’m not superstitious, I need to be able to feel what’s going on to direct you properly. I mean, I’m good, but I’m not ‘direct my own childbirth while sedated’ good. I also can’t scream in order to keep this private, so this ain't gonna be fun for either of us. You read your notes?”

“Of course. You couldn’t just let me train for this?”

“ ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’, you’d be too scared to help me. Okay, I’m ready. I’ll hit the wall when I’m pushing. Oh, and Jason? If I die on this couch, it’s not your fault, it’s because your wife expected you to learn five years of gynaecology in ten minutes. Love you.”

Gillian had attended the childbirth of many other people, but directing her own was among the most difficult things she’d ever done. Hours later, after a lot of snarled curses against herself, her love, the baby, and the fates in general, she delivered an apparently healthy baby boy. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning  of their problems.

She handed off the baby and asked to helped up, bringing him over to a locked canister. She dipped the baby in raw Mako, fed him, then handed him back to Jason. The premise of this experiment was that as a Cetra, the baby would react strongly to doses of Mako, betraying his Cetra heritage. If she already acclimatised him to Mako, the idea was that the response wouldn’t be as dramatic, thus giving the testers false data, It was a gamble and might not work for long, but it could give her years with her baby before this was found out.

Hojo and Lucrecia wouldn’t have been fooled, but they were unlikely to lower themselves to quality controlling someone else’s work. And Hollander was a diligent researcher, but lacked the creative spark of the other two. She could get this past him, hopefully. If not, then this entire ordeal had been for nothing. She lay back down and looked at her newborn again. No. Not for nothing. She reached out and stroked the tiny head. She’d always thought newborns were irredeemably ugly, and found it weird to find new parents calling their children beautiful. 

Funny how that worked. He was beautiful, and no one was going to take him away from her. After she was satisfied that he was healthy, fed, and otherwise satisfactorily provided for, she handed the baby back to her husband and reached out a hand to stroke the baby’s head one last time. If this didn’t work, it could really be the last time.

She looked at Jason. “You have your story straight?”

“Sudden labour, we were both caught off guard, no time to call anyone. Any complicated questions, just panic and ask a bunch of dumb questions like every other new father. And don’t let him out of my sight unless someone pulls a gun.”

“Great. I love you.”

She looked at the baby. “Take care of your Dad for me, kay? Mommy’s gotta take some drugs.” She injected herself in the neck with a preselected cocktail of sedatives and dropped like a stone.

Jason smiled, and smoothed back her hair. “You’re going to be such a bad influence.”

He carried her up to bed, then went looking for someone conscious that knew what to do next.

* * *

 

 Three days later, Gillian was able to attend the conference of Hollander and his aides.

A crew of about fifteen met in the lab complex. Gillian was walking with a stick bearing her weight, but no one could have kept her away if they wanted to. Preliminary scans for her newborn had come back with no anomalies. Brain activity, genes, motor function and so forth were all within projected levels for normal human babies. Which meant he was healthy, but otherwise unremarkable. Good news, but not the point of the experiment. The only true anomaly was a strange nub of bone on one shoulder. As far as she could ascertain given that she didn’t have full access to his file, Sephiroth had nothing similar. Strange.

The question was, what to do next? “Euthanise the samples and start over,” was the first suggestion from a researcher.

Gillian fixed her with a baleful look. “Sure, as long as you volunteer to bear the next experiment.”

The researcher, all of nineteen, blushed and looked away. “That does align with policy,” Hollander pointed out, a shade awkwardly.

“For animal specimens. I’m not going to lie, ladies and gentlemen, that was a difficult labour and not something I’m willing to readily repeat. I feel like there’d be fewer of these super baby projects if the proposers had to put their own bodies on the line.”

“Those narcissists,” Hollander agreed, smiling, “Some of them even name their projects after themselves, imagine.”

“It’s Project Gillian because I’m the experiment, not because I’m the Director.” Gillian said, glaring at him and wondering if the many, many sedatives taken immediately after the birth were still dulling her wits. She couldn’t afford that, not right now.

Hollander spread his hands. “No one is expecting you to crank out children like an assembly line. At the same time, this wasn’t the result we were hoping for.”

“It’s a baby,” Gillian pointed out, “How can we even know what Cetra genetics are meant to look like? We need observation time to be certain.”

Hollander smiled. “So you want to be left alone with your baby? For purely scientific reasons?”

“It doesn’t seem like too much to ask, given the sacrifices I’ve made for this project. No one is more qualified than I am to tell if Cetra traits do manifest. And if not, I always did plan to start a family.”

Hollander’s smile had an edge to it now. “Retiring so soon? We’d hate to lose you.”

“I’m not giving up on you, I’ll work on whatever project you need me to… but I’d also like the chance to raise my child, since he’s no use to you anyway.”

Hollander examined her for a long moment. “Alright. I’ll set you up in Banora, but you’re taking responsibility for our other best prospect too. Remember, if this goes wrong, all our careers are kaput.“

Gillian twitched, but his eyes were hard. There was no refusing this. She’d been hoping that the other best prospect would be taken elsewhere, allowing her to raise her own in peace. He wasn’t giving her that. Not so stupid, then, but still, underestimating her. She nodded, once. If the other child showed Cetra traits, Shinra would re-evaluate her own more thoroughly, which would mean she’d have to sabotage that experiment too. Destroying Hollander’s career, her own, and worst of all, making Hojo Gast’s successor. Hollander, despite appearances, wasn’t stupid, there would be other watchers she’d have to avoid. But it had to be done.

“So what are you going to call your little angel?” said the nineteen year old researcher, possibly trying to redeem herself.

Gillian stared blankly into space. “Uh…”

She’d been putting so much effort into making sure that she was allowed to keep her child that she hadn’t put any thought into this. Especially not with the risk she’d never get to see him again. “I’ll have to get back to you.”

* * *

 

 “Wow, that was easy,” Geraldine Rhapsodos said, smiling from her bed. “I thought childbirth was meant to be hard.”

Holding newly her weighed baby. Gillian tried to smile. “I hate you so much.”

Geraldine blanched, and Gillian realised that her statement sounded a lot more ominous coming from a high ranked Shinra scientist than it would from somebody in the next bed in a maternity ward.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I was a wreck for days after my little boy.”

“How is he doing?”

“Okay so far. Hopefully they’ll both do well."

A moment of silence. Then Geraldine said “What’s going to happen to us?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Gillian said, shrugging, “No one knows. Hang on, I just have to check one more thing.” She carried the newborn away and was able to shower him in Mako while pretending to wash him.

“I can tell you this, though.”Gillian said, handing the newborn back, “I promise I’ll do my best to take care of you.”

This time she didn’t catch the look on Geraldine's face.


	2. Unintended Consequences

Gillian had not actually intended to suppress the results of the project. She believed that a Cetra was necessary to understand, and possibly eventually save the world from itself. She’d intended to just buy enough time to spend with her child before Shinra took him away. Hollander’s attempt to force her to take full responsibility for the project had instead forced her to fudge the results for Genesis as well. Project Gillian, which she had staked her career on, was proved to be a total failure. Hollander lost his position and therefore his ability to threaten or monitor her, and Hojo was far too egotistical to care for someone else’s project, leaving them both to raise their children alone with minimal observation. Not the plan, but time to make the most of it.

Still, the plan had been to gain time to raise her own child, not to actually sabotage the experiment. Tweaking the results merely made the Shinra Science Dept think Genesis and Angeal were not reacting to Mako, it should not have fundamentally altered their cell structure. So she kept a close eye on the two boys as they grew. Scientifically, her vigil gained her little, but she found out quickly that she loved being a mother, even the gooey bits. There was still a fully stocked lab underneath Banora for her personal projects, and she put it to constant use, but had much more fun than she expected doing things like patching knees and making lunches. Her baby, Angeal, was a quiet child, one she had to be careful of because he didn’t always cry when he needed something. He grew into the image of his father, and as he grew, spent less time with her, a quiet grief. She kept a close watch on both the boys as they grew, but there were no Cetra traits she could detect.

They both became popular in different ways, but she saw no evidence that this was due to anything other than natural charisma. Angeal had an affinity for animals, but she put that down to his father’s influence more than anything else. The two boys were, however, drawn to each other, which was something she watched carefully, wondering if that was influenced by the Lifestream. They were about the same age, had similar interests, and lived in close proximity. It wasn’t that surprising that they became close. But she watched. Nicknamed Angie and Jenny by their peers, it was perhaps only natural that they were drawn to each other.

The first few years were blissful, Gillian doing enough mad science to pay the bills and keep herself entertained, and devoting her evenings to her family. Genesis’ parents reported to her on their own child, and didn’t seem to be having as much fun, although she suspected they were holding back for the same reason she was. So she kept watch.

Ironically, Genesis seemed to be closer in personality to Gillian than Angeal was. He had a lighter, more willowy build, and loved to curl up with books and listen to stories of heroism. She kept watch, but the first time they properly met was pure chance. 

 

* * *

 

“What are you doing?” the voice said, out of nowhere.

“Mad Science,” Gillian replied, her stock answer for everything these days, including baking. She’d signed too many confidentiality agreements to take chances.

When she’d ascertained that the frog in question was not reacting to Mako dilations, she turned away from her work and looked at the newcomer. “How did you get down here?”

“You’re in my secret base,” eight year old Genesis Rhapsodos informed her.

“Oh, sorry about that,” Gillian said, curtseying, and realising she’d have to somehow childproof her lab full of ridiculously dangerous things. “Are you recruiting a Mad Scientist? Every good secret base should have one.”

There was no way he’d stop coming down here on her sayso, she’d have to improvise.

Genesis considered this. “Okay, but we’re in MY base, remember.”

“Of course, M’lord. I was actually doing a secret project at home that I didn’t want anyone to know about, if you’d like to help.” Genesis agreed, and she brought him home to do more mad science. If he was disappointed that this turned out to mean cake, he was polite/hungry enough not to say so.

Jason played along on discovering her new ‘employer’, although she caught Angeal visibly rolling his eyes when he came in from the orchard. He was at least used to his parents by now, though.#

But he kept coming around after that, and Gillian began improvising stories around the fire every evening to keep him coming. She sank time and effort into her tales, the long running saga of how Princess Ella and her pet dragon mount laid waste to the kingdom of Argaston whiled away many a long evening.

Genesis loved these stories, and stayed long hours in her kitchen. Angeal was also a willing audience, but she often felt like he was politely nodding along rather than truly engaged. He spent more time outside with his father, whereas Genesis loved to listen to stories. On a rare day when her imagination failed her, she introduced him to Loveless, and he soon had half the town driven to distraction with quotations. All part of the diabolical plan.

* * *

 

“And then Queen Mulberry cut Princess Ella’s sword in half, and threw her down from the dais. Ella always carries knives, but they don’t do much against full plate armour, so she had no choice but to surrender, and ended up locked in the deepest dungeon in Argaston, which had just been built after she escaped from the last one.”

Angeal had grown out of these stories by now, but for Genesis they were still going strong. Gillian and Genesis were both getting too old for this, but were having too much fun to consider stopping. By now the lore was so extensive Gillian was considering releasing an anthology under a pseudonym.

“It better work this time.”

“We hope so. But, y’know, it’s hard to hurt family even when they’re doing bad things. That’s why the Queen doesn’t usually go after her herself, it makes her too sad.” Gillian glanced out the window and suddenly realised it was dark. It was too easy to lose track of time during these escapades. “Anyway, it’s late, it’s time you went home. Your parents will be wondering what happened to you.”

“They don’t wonder. Not when I’m with you.”

“Um…really?” “They don’t care about me.” This was not good. She couldn’t raise him to hate his parents, that wouldn’t go good places, but there were limits to what she could say, thanks to those confidentiality agreements. She took a gamble on half truth. “They care. They’re just afraid to say no to me.”

“What?”

“I used to work for Shinra. Once upon a time, I wasn’t a person to say no to. But then a science experiment went wrong, and I got sacked. So I’m not someone to be afraid of any more, but they remember what I used to be. I’m sorry I kept you so late, I’ll try not to let this happen again.”

She couldn’t make a firm promise because she tended to get wrapped up in the story as much as Genesis did. Her perfect memory helped, but line by line improvisations that stayed in continuity still took effort. She watched his reaction, but found nothing to cause alarm, and he went home without anything unusual occurring. She didn’t give it much further thought until it was too late.

* * *

 

Insofar as a fake town could have traditions, Banora had developed a strong tradition of physical combat. If they didn’t learn to play for keeps, the local Head Hunters taught them the error of their ways quickly. Outside of self defence, boxing was one of the popular pastimes in the town. Gillian herself didn’t normally take an interest, but the Under 12s semi final between Genesis and Angeal was an object of enough interest that she felt it wouldn’t draw suspicion to go along. They both had reputations for being accomplished young fighters by now, and many were eager to see how the clash would pan out.

Banora’s local annual boxing tournament didn’t have enough participants to separate by weight classes, prize categories were separated only by age and sometimes gender if there were enough competitors. So broader, heavier Angeal was left facing willowy, slight, Genesis, as the odds on favourite. Jason had taught Angeal to box and their styles were very similar, very defensive and cautious. In the adults event, Jason was always a finalist, but never a winner. He had also never been knocked out.

Genesis’ reputation was of a fighter who would sacrifice anything to win. Gillian didn’t know if either of his parents boxed or if he’d learned it somewhere else, but he’d quickly become someone to be feared among his peers. Mercifully, they were both still too young for trash talk, and got down to business immediately when the bell rang.

Genesis came in first with a hard right that slid off Angeal’s guard, but he didn’t slow down, keeping up a barrage that forced Angeal to give ground, counterpunching where he could, but mostly keeping his guard up and keeping on the back foot. Round one ended with few clean hits from either of them, but Genesis was likely winning on points. He redoubled his efforts in the second round, trying not just to win but to hurt his opponent. Angeal weathered it all peacefully until midway through the second round, when he had to open his guard to fend off a sly hook to the shoulder, freeing Genesis to launch a left hand jab that hit Angeal’s nose with a crack that echoed across the ring.

Hisses from the crowd. These bouts relied on the honour system, and deliberate injury to your opponent was heavily frowned upon. The referee glanced at Gillian for some reason, who not knowing the rules of boxing, shrugged. Then the audience saw Angeal smile, drop his guard, and start advancing, trying to dictate the pace instead of waiting for opportunities.

By the end of the round, both of them were bleeding heavily. They were both disqualified, of course. They were also both smiling as they walked away. Genesis had probably landed more strikes, but he also appeared to be more injured. Gillian caught herself keeping score and banished the thought, then brought them both in for a medical examination. Most of the injuries were cuts and scrapes, of course, but Angeal notably had the nub of bone on his shoulder broken open. It was causing a disproportionate amount of pain even for a broken bone, until she removed a spill of fine white dust. She wasn’t sure what it actually was, except that it wasn’t bone. Curious. She wrestled for quite a while over whether to report it in or not, but eventually gave in. Her own facilities, while good, had limits, and the dust could be anything. Above all else, she needed to know the truth.


	3. Friends Like These

When the Shinra military recruiter passed through Banora a few months later, Gillian didn’t pay it much heed, except to note with satisfaction that Genesis was immediately interested. It was your usual gimmicky stall, loud rock music, explosions, and guns manned by a girl in a tight white lace top. Fortunately, the two boys were still a little too young to be as dazzled by this as the recruiters likely intended.

She didn’t pay much attention. Then Angeal went into town. She didn’t think he would be so easily dazzled, but wasn’t willing to take the chance. So once it got dark and the stall was packing up for the evening, she wandered into town.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

The stall girl looked up and smirked. “You’re not my normal demographic.”

“Maybe not,” Gillian said, taking her old Shinra ID out of her skirt pocket, “but I think you may want to be open to possibilities.”

Stall girl raised an eyebrow. “Science Dept, huh? Okay, I’ll finish up and hear you out.”

Banora being Banora, it wasn’t difficult to find the bar. Stall girl showed up in five minutes dressed a good deal more conservatively than her previous uniform. Which made sense. Banora never got truly cold, but nor was it Costa del Sol.

“So how do you like your job?” Gillian asked, sliding across a beer.

Stall girl shrugged. “Not exactly glamourous, but I’ll take it over climbing Razor Ridge with 40 pounds of gear and my bare hands. Stand still, flutter my eyelashes, occasionally knife a douche. I’ve done worse jobs. Boring as fuck, though.”

“Military, then?”

“Seconded to PR.” Stall girl flashed her own badge, declaring her name as Raisa. “Listen, I reckon I know what you’re thinking, but none of this is my call. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this conversation, and It’s not up to me whether your kid stays home or not.”

“What are your orders?” Gillian asked with deceptive mildness.

Raisa smiled knowingly. “Maybe you’d better talk to my boss.”

“They’re here?”

“Good to see you again, Gill,” Hollander said from behind her.  He went straight to the bar and ordered whisky before rejoining them.

Gillian regarded him, keeping calm. “Holly. Slumming it a bit, aren’t we?”

“Needs must. I saw your report. Can we clear the room?”

Gillian caught the barman’s eye and jerked her head towards the door.

“Ooo, clandestine…” Raisa said happily. “Finally, something happened!”

Hollander looked at her. “You too.”

Raisa looked heartbroken, but left quietly. The barman locked the outer door, then disappeared into a back room.

Hollander looked at her, flicked his eyes to the departing barman. “We can trust him?”

“They don’t want to know. So, Holly, what’s this about?”

“You lied to me. ‘No abnormalities.’ Then you send on that dust you found inside…Angeal, was it?”

She said nothing, then, “What was it?”

“We’re still not sure. Not bone, though. Exposure to test animals made them sick, then docile. Nothing normal, regardless”

“Your practices are just as sloppy as when I left.”

“Maybe so. You shouldn’t have skipped out on me, Gill.”

“So I found weird dust in his shoulder, what’s the lie in that?”

“Exposure alters genetic structure. Like the Cetra were reported to be able to do. I don’t think you could have missed this up to now.”

“ Even I can make mistakes.”

“Your mistake destroyed both our careers. I let you walk. I can’t even revive Project G now, I don’t have enough influence. But I can do a few things.”

He took out a piece of paper from an inside pocket and handed it over the bar. A conscription notice, made out to Jason’s real name.

Gillian didn’t smash her glass into his face. But it was close. “And this accomplishes what, Holly?” She carried a knife, but it wouldn’t help here, not if the notice was already filed. Banorans were technically exempt from conscription into the endless war, as existing Shinra employees, but Hollander could still have enough connections to make this happen.

“I don’t have much influence over the company these days. But some people still owe me favours.  Don’t lie to me again, Gillian.”

“I have favours too.”

“No doubt. It will be interesting to see if you use them here.” Hollander drained his glass and stood. “Always a pleasure, Gillian. I’ll look forward to when we meet again.”

He let himself out. Gillian had three more drinks, staring blankly at the slip of paper, before she so much as moved. Hojo would have had no difficulty believing that she’d made a mistake, but Hollander had always had too much respect for her abilities.

 

* * *

 

 

_“_ He’s still pissed I didn’t have sex with him in college.” __Much.__

 

Jason burst out laughing. He had that strange quality of being amused by his own misfortunes. It was usually more endearing.

“Oh, I hope you’re lying. Because that is a really stupid reason to die.”

“You’re not going to die. I have favours too.” Gillian said, shrugging. “No direct pull, but the right people know my name.”

“No.”

“What?”

“Save your favours for when you need them. Angie’s getting older, if you spend your favour now, he’ll come back around when Angie’s old enough to conscript and pull this again. I met him once, remember? Not a man to give up.”

Gillian stared at her husband mutely. He was fair, honourable, and always gave the benefit of the doubt…exactly the kind of person that died quickly on the battlefield. Could she really do this to him?

“I mean…are you sure? Think it over.”

“I plan to. But I don’t think I’ll change my mind. Be right back.”

He disappeared out the back door.

Once again, Gillian was left at a table, staring at a conscription notice. This time wondering if she had known how this would pan out when she brought the notice home.

_Did I do that on purpose? What am I doing to my family?_

Angeal would be home soon. She put away the notice and her feelings away, to be dealt with later.


End file.
